Consider or imagine you are presenting at a workshop meeting to your colleagues in an educational setting. It may be a school, nonprofit organization, church group, or other affiliation

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Chapter 11

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-9775-9.ch011

ABSTRACT

Childhood trauma and stress affects learning. John Dewey’s theories of progressive, experiential educa- tion data suggest that experiential education positively correlates not only to comprehension, but also to attitudes towards learning as a whole, and towards student self-esteem and ultimately brain health. However, experiential learning is affected by brain development and childhood stress. Experiential learning, particularly project-based curricula, have demonstrated positive outcomes in students from grades K-12. When assessments are adjusted to reflect content actually covered by a given project, students who learned through the project-based method performed significantly better than students in the comparison group, suggesting that experiential education enhances brain development and brain health in the areas of social emotional learning and improves comprehension and retention of material.

INTRODUCTION

Pedagogy must take into consideration the learning engagement of the entire person. Teaching and learning are complex processes. They include more than cognitive approaches because the learner comes to class with a plethora of childhood experiences that can interfere with the learning process. Specifically, toxic stress that occurred in a person’s childhood can affect brain functioning many years

The Affective Phenomena of Childhood Trauma:

Can Experiential Learning, Social Emotional Learning Enhance Healthy Brain Development?

Claire Steele Oregon State University, USA

Theresa Neimann Oregon State University, USA

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later. If a child’s stress response systems are activated and stay activated for sustained periods of time, toxic stress can result, especially in the absence of a protecting shelter of a caring adult relationship (Blair & Raver, 2012; Evans & Kim, 2013). Research shows that extended exposure to stress and stress hormones affect a child’s immune system, making him/her more vulnerable to both acute and chronic illness, which can have long term effects on the structure and functioning of the child’s developing brain (Gunnar et al., 2009).

Childhood stressors such as abuse, neglect and poverty has been established as sources of toxic stress that has been proven to affect learning even after the child has grown into an adult (Fernald & Gunnar, 2009). Neuroscientist, Pat Levitt calls childhood trauma such as poverty a neurotoxin (2015): the circumstances that accompany poverty—what a National Scientific Council report summarized as “overcrowding, noise, substandard housing, separation from parent(s), exposure to violence, family tur- moil,” and other forms of extreme stress—can be toxic to the developing brain, just like drug or alcohol abuse. These conditions provoke the body to release hormones such as cortisol, which is produced in the adrenal cortex. Brief bursts of cortisol can help a person manage difficult situations, but high stress over the long term can be disastrous (Blair & Raver, 2012; Neimann, Stelson & Malecek, 2017). Extended periods of high stress during childhood have been demonstrated to negatively affect a child’s ability to learn with long term effects extending into adulthood (Yoshikawa, Aber & Beardslee, 2012). Experi- ential learning is a pathway to social emotional learning which can offset childhood stress by providing opportunities for children to connect learning to their interests (Seifert & Sutton, 2009). It has shown to positively enhance healthy brain development.

BACKGROUND

According to John Dewey’s theories of progressive, experiential education, learning occurs best when the student can relate new information to a prior experience, and the information is presented to students in a way that connects to their stated interests and projected futures (Dewey, 1916, 2007; Seifert & Sutton, 2009). “In its simplest form, experiential learning means learning from experience or learning by doing. Experiential learning is a methodology in which educators decisively engage with students in direct experience and focused reflection in order to increase knowledge, develop skills, and clarify values (Association for Experiential Education, para. 2). It is learning through action, learning by doing, learning through experience, and learning through discovery and exploration (Dewey, 1938).

Confucius 450 B.C. noted, I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand. Dewey (2007) noted, there is an intimate and necessary relation between the process of actual experience and education. Wurdinger and Carlson (2010) found that most college faculty teach by lecturing because few have learned how to teach otherwise. Although good lecturing should be part of instructors teaching selection, faculty should also actively involve their students “in the learning process through discussion, group work, hands-on participation, and applying information outside the classroom” (p. 2).

This process defines experiential learning where students are involved in learning content in which they have a personal interest, need, or want (Loretto, 2011). Learning through experience is not a new concept for the college classroom. Notable educational psychologists such as John Dewey (1859-1952), Carl Rogers (1902-1987), and David Kolb (b. 1939) have provided the groundwork of learning theories that focus on “learning through experience or learning by doing (Neill, 2006). Dewey popularized the concept of Experiential Education which focused on problem solving and critical thinking rather than

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just memorization and rote learning. Rogers considered experiential learning (EL) “significant” as com- pared to what he called “meaningless” cognitive learning. Students in experiential learning situations cooperate and learn from one another in a more semi-structured approach. Instruction is designed to engage students in direct experiences which are tied to real world problems and situations in which the instructor facilitates rather than directs student progress.

“The focus of EL is placed on the process of learning and not the product of learning” (UC Davis, 2011, para 6). Experiential education first immerses learners in an experience and then encourages reflection about the experience to develop new skills, new attitudes, or new ways of thinking,” Lewis and Williams (1994, p.5). The material and time requirements of hands-on project-based learning can present challenges to implementation, causing many to consider it an impractical method for covering the full breadth of content required by most diplomas (Haynes, 2007). However, research does suggest that experiential education positively correlates not only to comprehension, but also to attitudes towards learning as a whole, and towards student self-esteem (Chapman, McPhee & Proudman, 1995; Wurdinger, 2005). By that metric, experiential learning is intriguing for its ability to teach the student holistically, and to encourage life-long learners. For these reasons, some educators and scholars consider it to be an important supplement to more traditional education styles (Callahan, 2018b; Field, n.d.; Moon, 2004; Roth, 2012).

Proponents of experiential learning assert that students will be more motivated to learn when they have a personal stake in the subject rather than being assigned to review a topic or read a textbook chapter (Chapman, McPhee & Proudman, 1995). What is essential in EL, however, “that the phases of experiencing (doing), reflection and applying are present. In addition, “the stages of reflection and application are what make experiential learning different and more powerful than other models (UC Davis, 2011, para 12 citing Proudman).

There are schools which have attempted to make experiential education their primary method of in- struction – Reggio Emmalia, Waldorf, and Montessori programs in particular (Brown, 2012), but many of these are aimed primarily at younger learners, and the practicalities of implementing their instructional theories and methods across the content of higher grade levels could prove prohibitively tasking to the resources of smaller school districts or those with a less-affluent tax base. Ignoring the practicalities of these concerns while attempting to implement a project-based curriculum across the board in Ameri- can public schools might result in sub-par execution by school districts lacking the necessary means for success. Ironically, this could contribute to the educational inequality to which John Dewey was so vehemently opposed in his own time (Dewey, 2007; Roth, 2012).

PROJECT-BASED CURRICULA

Nevertheless, project-based curricula have been implemented in pockets of districts around the United States, which are demonstrating positive outcomes for their students. For example, sixth-grade students in Barrington, Rhode Island, helped design the architecture of their own middle school as part of their mathematics curriculum (Callahan, 2018a); Blue Valley, Kansas, has provided a Center for Advanced Professional Studies program for their students, giving adolescents the opportunity to be mentored by employers in disciplines of their choice for both high-school and college credit (Blue Valley Schools, 2018); and Cedar Rapids Schools in Iowa have created a program called IowaBIG, which students utilize

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their science and math skills on community-improvement projects, such as mapping storm water runoff within the city (Callahan, 2018b).

The following is a list of experiential learning principles as noted from the (Association for Expe- riential Education, 2011, para 4):

• Experiential learning occurs when carefully chosen experiences are supported by reflection, criti- cal analysis and synthesis.

• Experiences are structured to require the student to take initiative, make decisions and be account- able for results.

• Throughout the experiential learning process, the student is actively engaged in posing questions, investigating, experimenting, being curious, solving problems, assuming responsibility, being cre- ative and constructing meaning.

• Students are engaged intellectually, emotionally, socially, soulfully and/or physically. This in- volvement produces a perception that the learning task is authentic.

• The results of the learning are personal and form the basis for future experience and learning. • Relationships are developed and nurtured: student to self, student to others and student to the

world at large. • The instructor and student may experience success, failure, adventure, risk-taking and uncertainty,

because the outcomes of the experience cannot totally be predicted. • Opportunities are nurtured for students and instructors to explore and examine their own values. • The instructor’s primary roles include setting suitable experiences, posing problems, setting

boundaries, supporting students, insuring physical and emotional safety, and facilitating the learn- ing process.

• The instructor recognizes and encourages spontaneous opportunities for learning. • Instructors strive to be aware of their biases, judgments and preconceptions, and how these influ-

ences the student. • The design of the learning experience includes the possibility to learn from natural consequences,

mistakes and successes. The instructor and student may experience success, failure, adventure, risk taking and uncertainty, because the outcomes of the experience cannot totally be predicted.

Key Words

John Dewey – Early 20th century American philosopher and psychologist, whose theories have been influential to progressive education and social reform. Dewey founded the University of Chicago’s Laboratory School, which embraced a model of experiential education proposed by Dewey’s own edu- cational philosophies (Dewey, 2007).

Experiential education – Educational philosophy that emphasizes the relative importance of learning by doing. As applied, experiential education often presents students with hands-on projects designed to develop a students’ facility with a given set of skills through direct experience; educators can medi- ate this learning process by encouraging student reflection upon the topics addressed by the project (Erikson, 1968).

Social emotional learning – the process through which individuals acquire the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to practice effective self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making (Mcleod, 2018).

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Brain development – Human brain development refers to the protracted process of adaptive changes to the architecture of the brain that result in increasing complexity and maturation over time. Brain de- velopment begins in the third week of gestation and continues throughout an individual’s lifetime, though the brain is typically considered fully mature around age 25. Healthy brain development is dependent upon both genetic and environmental factors, and a disruption to either can have significant long-term negative effects upon neural outcomes (Zubizarreta, 2008).

Project-based learning – a teaching method that utilizes real-world scenarios and problems to cultivate student knowledge and skills. Project-based learning is thought to encourage critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork and self-management. Because projects are often drawn from local problems or chal- lenges, they also develop students’ sense of agency, and increase student engagement with curricula (Warren, 1995).

THERORETICAL BACKGROUND

According to Erickson (1968) (Sheck, 2014), every person has his or her own unique identity. This identity is composed of the different personality traits that can be considered positive or negative. These personality traits can also be innate or acquired, and they vary from one person to another based on the degree of influence that the environment has on the individual. The bottom line is that as human be- ings, we possess many characteristics that are fine-tuned in many different aspects that eventually define who we are. Erik Erikson’s (1950) Theory of Psychosocial Development emphasizes the sociocultural determinants of development and presents them as eight stages of psychosocial conflicts (often known as Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development) that all individuals must overcome or resolve success- fully in order to adjust well to the environment (Sheck, 2014).

According to Erik Erikson’s(1950; 1968) theory, we all encounter a certain crisis that contributes to our psychosocial growth at each of Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development. Whenever we ex- perience such crisis, we are left with no choice but to face it and think of ways to resolve it. Failure to overcome such crisis may lead to significant impact on our psychosocial development.

EVALUATING LEARNING OUTCOMES OF EXPERIENTIAL EDUCATION PROGRAMS

According to Chris Unger, Associate Professor with Northeastern University’s Doctor of Education program, “We know experiential learning increases student engagement and deepens student learning, and not just in the core academic subjects, but in ways schools don’t always measure—students are learning how to think, how to collaborate, and how to innovate.” In this process the brain is making new connections contributing to brain plasticity and health (Callahan, 2018b, p. 2). This statement is sup- ported by meta-analysis of available studies evaluating the learning outcomes of experiential education programs (Ewert & Sibthorp 2009). Because each experience or project is different, it can be extremely difficult to compare efficacy of project-based curricula to traditional learning formats, especially if the assessment used is something near to a final exam, which is more typical of a traditional classroom, and when this is the case there is no significant difference in performance between students who received information through lecture and those who learned through projects (Gosenpud, 1990; Seifert & Sutton,

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2009). However, when assessments are adjusted to reflect content actually covered by a given project, students who learned through the project-based method performed significantly better than students in the comparison group, suggesting that experiential education does improve comprehension and reten- tion of material. In addition self-esteem is increased which translates into psychological and emotional health (Gosenpud, 1990; Qualters, 2010).

Advocates of experiential education programs also often argue that the value of such programs is found in the positive changes made to students’ attitudes towards learning (Gosenpud, 1990; Warren, 1995; Wurdinger, 2005). Indeed, Dewey himself argued that “The inclination to learn from life itself and to make the conditions of life such that all will learn in the process of living is the finest product of schooling” (Roth, 2012 p. 4). Essentially, Dewey thought that the goal of education should be to teach students the habit of learning from their experiences (Demetrion, 2002; Dewey, 1916). To that end, the IowaBIG program chooses to eschew traditional grades in favor of a reflective meeting between students and teachers to discuss student progress in five different areas, including a parameter designated Joy (Callahan, 2018b).

If Erikson’s (1968) theory of Psychosocial Crises is presumed correct, methods of traditional grading could severely damage the developing personalities of adolescents. Instead, fostering a positive evaluating progress in a manner in which they are invited to participate without threat to their concept of identity might be a healthier practice.

Clearly, there are significant challenges to creating meaningful, project-based curricula and to imple- menting these curricula on a grand scale. Doing so would require greater inputs of material resources and, very likely, a lower student to teacher ratio to allow for better mentoring opportunities and nuanced evaluation of student projects. Rather than making it the primary means of content instruction, supple- menting traditional curricula with experiential education is not only advisable according to the available data, but also currently within the grasp of many public schools (Callahan, 2018a).

Brain Development and Experiential Learning

The brain goes through a series of major structural changes throughout childhood and adolescence that results in different levels of ability in physical, emotional, social, and cognitive processes emerging at varying rates during an individual’s development into adulthood ((Neimann, Stelson, & Malecek, 2017)). Throughout life, the brain undergoes several periods of rapid growth requiring the generation of new neural pathways, and selective reduction of infrequently utilized pathways to create specialization and increase cognitive efficiency.

During the first few years of childhood, more than 1 million new neural connections are created every second (CDC Harvard, 2018a). Repeated use of a neurological pathway or synapse physiologi- cally reinforces the pathway, but less-frequently used pathways are allowed to degrade over time until they eventually become difficult or even impossible to access, in a process called “synaptic pruning.” This process is essential to the individual’s ability to learn, as it creates space for new, more important or useful, neural connections to form. When the mechanism of synaptic pruning goes awry, it is impli- cated in complex developmental and mental health abnormalities like Autism Spectrum Disorder and Schizophrenia (Seifert & Sutton, 2009).

A rapid period of neurological growth occurs between infancy and age six, after which the process of pruning begins. Processes related to sensation, touch, and vision are all mostly mature by the age of four, but brain architecture related to more abstract cognitive and emotional processes will develop far

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more slowly. School-aged children before puberty experience growth primarily in their parietal lobes, prefrontal cortex, and areas related to language acquisition, resulting in fine-motor skill refinement, im- proved facility with language, and increased capacity for spatial reasoning and mathematics. Because the prefrontal cortex is not yet mature, children’s abilities to reason abstractly or govern their own emotional state can be unreliable. Children this age also struggle with filtering important data when presented with a lot of information or stimulation, which can result in emotional outbursts – something which can be attested to by any parent who has experienced their child throwing a tantrum after a few hours at a theme park (Neimann, Stelson & Malecek, 2017).

Puberty brings a period of increased pruning, allowing for specialization, alongside a slow maturation of the prefrontal cortex and parietal lobes, which govern long-term planning, judgement of risk, analytical thinking skills, and the capacity for abstract thought. At the same time, pubescent adolescents develop a significant capacity for “creating emotion.” This combination of increased emotional complexity and an immature prefrontal cortex is responsible for the seemingly unpredictable, rash decisions and risky behaviors that often characterize adolescence. Individuals in their late-teens and early twenties exhibit better self-control to match their emotional maturity, but their capacity for appropriate decision-making will continue to develop and improve for several years. (Seifert & Sutton, 2009; Neimann, Stelson & Malecek, 2017). Once mature, the brain’s ability to change in response to experiences decreases as we age. After age thirty, neuroplasticity declines and the amount of effort required to change is greater (CDC Harvard, 2018a).

Brain Development in Early Childhood and Adolescence

Rapid periods of neural growth occur early in development; foundational brain architecture is established during infancy and affects what can be built atop it during the remainder of a person’s life (AFWI, 2014). The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University (2018) further stresses that all brain architec- ture is interconnected; “You can’t have one skill without the others to support it”. Perhaps one of the first and most important properties to emerge during early childhood is a theory of mind, or the recognition that another person’s behavior and actions are predicated upon their mental state and intentions. This ability emerges during the first year of life, which continues to be refined throughout development into adulthood. An individual whose brain development was abnormal due to trauma or adverse stress, during this critical phase of infancy would later struggle with the development of complex thought surrounding language acquisition, strategic social interaction, reflexive thought, and moral judgement (Duckworth & Carlson, 2005; Neimann, Stelson & Malecek, 2017). The basis for skills in areas such as emotion, motor skills, behavioral control, logical thinking, language, and memory are all laid during this critical period of early childhood (CDC Harvard, 2018).

Foundational brain development in a healthy environment generates the basic emotional and social skills of executive function and self-regulation. “Serve and Return” interactions, positive experiences with caretakers such as touch, communication, eye-contact, singing, and games, help to develop this critical foundational architecture. A child growing up in a home characterized by neglect or abuse, however, is developing in an environment of “Serve and Return” famine, and just as a malnourished body deprived of vital nutrients during growth will end up stunted and malformed, so too the brain deprived of such critical interactions will develop abnormally, resulting in physiological changes to the brain’s founda- tional architecture that present challenges to both learning and behavior later in life (NSPCC, 2017; CDC Harvard, 2018a). Although much of the groundwork for development is laid during early childhood, we

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cannot discount the importance of continued healthy brain development in adolescence. Not only is this the period during which an individual’s capacity for complex reasoning experiences the greatest growth, it is also a period of significant specialization through synaptic pruning (Sheck, 2014; Neimann, Stelson & Malecek, 2017). Even a teenager who spent their early childhood in a stable environment with healthy, positive, interactions may experience degradation or loss of these neural connections if their environ- ment has become unstable and those neurons have not been continually reinforced through regular use.

How Childhood Stress Hijacks Learning

Experts (Hebb, 1949; Kotulak, 1996) named the plasticized brain learning of infancy and early childhood neoteny. Kotulak (1996) noted, “At eight months, a baby’s brain has about 1000 trillion connections,” and is growing at the incredible rate of three billion [neural connections] a second (p. xiv). At that point, a person is completely vulnerable. He or she may be easily imprinted with the emotional tone of earliest lessons; like black ink on the white paper of consciousness. One has, without volition, been introduced to expectations—certain ways of thinking, acting, being, that are absorbed as preferences (Neimann, Stelson & Malecek, 2017). If, during these primary and critical interactions, one feels loved and valued, one’s brain will become attuned to positive energies and develop a positive self-image (a sense of competence, efficacy, and value). In this way, one may also naturally attract amplifying experiences that affirm one’s hardiness and resilience (Neimann, Stelson & Malecek, 2017; Teicher, et al., 2002). If, conversely, one has predominately negative early experiences incorporated as the foundation of self, one may develop an amplified negative, even self-destructive, self-image, and concomitant self-destructive behaviors. One may internalize the negative value judgments, depreciations, and imprecations projected by significant others as one’s own, and act on them as if valid.

Prolonged exposure to stressors can change the architecture of the brain during development, and significantly affect outcomes in adulthood beyond just learning and behavior (AFWI, 2014). The stress response, fight or flight, is an adaptively important survival mechanism, but the physiological effects of the reaction (e.g. upregulated hormonal levels) can negatively affect brain architecture if the survival response is prolonged. For example our bodies respond to chronic stressors, such as persistent hunger because our only reliable meal is the school’s lunch program, with the same physiological reaction as they do to acute stressors, such as the fear from walking past a barking dog. Thus, development in an environment of neglect or abuse can keep the brain awash in these fight-or-flight chemicals and pro- foundly alter the growth of a child’s brain (CDC Harvard, 2018a).

The Alberta Family Wellness Initiative refers to prolonged stress like this as “toxic stress.” Toxic stress during development is correlated to addiction and substance abuse, cardiovascular illness, mental illness, and reduced function of the immune system during adulthood (AFWI, 2014). Perhaps more distressing, a comprehensive study also correlated excessive stress and trauma during childhood to an increased propensity to be in an intimate relationship characterized by violence as an adult, potentially allowing for exposure of another generation of children to the same kind of chronic developmental stressors, closing the insidious cyclic loop of childhood trauma (Neimann, Stelson & Malecek, 2017).

According to Teicher et al., (2002, pp. 68-75), the brain itself suffers pernicious effects from trauma that actually “mediate development in vulnerable brain regions,” specifically in the form of limbic ir- ritability. This is manifested by markedly increased prevalence of symptoms suggestive of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and by an increased incidence of clinically significant EEG (brain wave) abnormali- ties. [This embraces the possibility of sensory, motor, perceptual, and/or emotional changes]. Deficient

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development and differentiation of the left hemisphere is another response to childhood trauma such as poverty and toxic stress, it is manifested throughout the cerebral cortex and the hippocampus, which is involved in memory retrieval (Kolulak, 1996; Neimann, Stelson & Malecek, 2017). [This may include heightened right hemispheric development (to the detriment of the left hemisphere); deficiency in de- velopment of the left hippocampus—and hence language development, verbal memory, and possibly dissociative symptoms]. In addition, deficient left-right hemisphere integration is indicated by marked shifts in hemispheric activity during memory recall and by underdevelopment of the middle portions of the corpus callosum, the